India steel plant to gift employees with Gold coins

January 18, 2009

Commodity Online
RAIPUR, India: India’s state-run steel company has decided to gift gold coins to all its employees as part of the golden jubilee celebrations of a steel plant situated at Raipur, a northern Indian city. The plant will give away 272 kilograms of gold to the employees.

The Steel Authority of India (SAIL), the largest public sector steel company run by the Indian government, said that employees of the Bhilai Steel plant will be honoured with gold coins weighing eight grams.

”This is our unique gift of taking care of the employees because the Bhilai Steel plant is celebrating golden jubilee next month. What better way to gift our employees than giving them gold coins during our golden jubilee celebrations,” said National Joint Committee for Steel Industry (NJCS) member Vinod Kumar Soni.

SAIL runs a number of major steel plants across India, and Bhilai Steel plant is one of its biggest. The Bhilai Steel plant has an employee strength of around 34,000. “We will have to distribute some 272 kilograms of gold worth about Rs 35.5 crore to the employees. This is the first time in India that any company is undertaking such a unique project to gift goins to its staff,” said Soni.

Saying that all the employees will get the gold coins by the second week of next month, Soni said gifting gold coins is to show the company cares for the employees.

As per the government decision, all those employees working with the steel plant when the plant started its golden jubilee celebration i.e. on February 3, 2008, would eligible to get the gold coins.

Gifting gold coins has become part of the social custom in India, the world’s largest consumer of the yellow metal. Last year, India imported around 700 tons of gold to meet the domestic demand.

India has a long history of gold coins. The earliest Indian coins were silver, and it was not until about 100 AD that the Kushan emperor Vima Kadaphises introduced the first Indian gold coin, which was a gold dinar bearing the image of Shiva. So India's history of issuing gold coins dates back almost 2,000 years.

All these years, India has produced many different denominations of gold coins, which include Dinars, Staters, Kahavanus, Pagodas, Tankas, Ashrafis, Mohurs, Gadyanas, Bhairava Gadyanas, Varahas, Fanams, Koris, Xerafims, and Tolas.

Several major banks and India Post, the postal services arm of the government of India, are these days promoting gold coins as a safe investment option.

To buy Hallmarked 999.9 Pure Swiss Gold Bars, Gold Bullion, Gold Ingots & 916 Gold Coins in Singapore or convert your 916 Physical Gold to physical 999.9 Pure Swiss Gold Bars, Click on Buy Gold to find out more. You may Sell Gold to us too.

[ Back To Home ]